The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1887-09-07
"A CONNECTS PRAYER"

The Minneapolis Evening journal of
Aug. 81, reproduces prayer published in
THE MIRROR of Aug. "a. signed Ed
ward Brown and under flaming headlines
proceeds to give its readers ''hiStory' of
the supposed author of the prayer, as fol-
lows:
This is signed by Edward Brown, and is re-
minder of of the strangest cases in the annals
of crime. Something over ten years ago Brown
was the night Waterman in the old Dean saw mill
on the site of what is known the Pacific
mill, near the suspension bridge. He was de-
yout member of the Second Congregational church
and an exemplary citizen. His wife was a wo.
much younger than himself. and they had
two daughters who were then just poisoning in
to young womanhood. Mrs. Brown, with sister,
had purchased, against the wishes of her hus-
band a small confectionery and fruit stand on
Washington av. about where the Brown Bros.
restaurant is now located. There were some ugly
rumors at the time about the chastity of the sister,
and it afterwards appeared that Edward Brown
the husband and author of this little prayer
printed above shared in the suspicious to the
chastity of Mrs Browns sister. and even ceased
to trust implicitly his wife. One Sunday morning
he came home after finishing his nights work
Waterman in the mill. called his wife into the
front room of their little home down on Eighth
st. S. and shot her dead. Then he coolly walked
ont of the house and gave himself up to the
authorities.
The writer remembers that Brown then man
past 60 an hour afterwards confessed to him the
crime, related how he believed his two young
daughters were in danger of being led astray by
the mother, how he had thought over the matter
and even prayed over it, spending much of the
night in prayer, and had reached the conclusion
that his only way to the children was to
kill the other. He went to his home and car
red out his deliberate purpose. In court he plead
ed gully to the charge OF murder. None of the
pleas of lawyers and friends that he make a de-
fense and that they might be permitted to set up
the charge of insanity had any influence upon
him. He confessed his guilt and expected pun
ishment, and no one doubted, who met the MUIR
derer that he would have felt worse to have
escaped punishm ent than he did the crime
He had taken all that into consideration, and was
as conscientious about the punishment he be-
leved himself to be about the crime. The court
sent him to states prison for life. For more than
10 years he has followed the weary round at the
state penal institution. He is man now well on
to"aTu ~ years OIL age, In WnOm the state prison
officials have enough of confid ence to believe that
he would not leave the prison ii he could. Mean
time the doubly orphaned daughters have grown
into attractive and vrtuOus womanhOod and
minister to the declining years of their deluded
father with such little remembrances as prison
regulations will permit
With the exception that the party's name
OF whom the Journal thinks it is speaking is
flames" not Edward" and that he is now
living with son at Bloomington Prairie, not
far from Minneapolis, (havng left this pris-
on year ago last May), the above facts are
about as correct as the average journal
which aims at a scoop" rather than accu-
racy. generally gets them. A full history
of Browns case was published by the St.
Paul papers at the time of his discharge,
and it is evident the writer of the above
has been mapping" for the past ten years.
Perhaps THE MIRROR owes its readers
some explanation Of the prayer referred to-
1t was not original with the young man who
handed it in for publication, but was sent
to him by his mother. and is in reality
copied from book Of prayers. No fraud
was intended, but the young man in ques-
ton was somewhat astOnished to find him.
self so famous. and the father of a family
of grOwn-up daughters